Gareth Porter
Asia Times
November 19, 2008
WASHINGTON – The text of the United States-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) signed by US ambassador Ryan Crocker and Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari on Monday closes the door to a further US military presence beyond 2011 even more tightly than the previous draft and locks in a swift end to Iraqi dependence on the US military that appears to be irreversible.
The agreement ends the George W Bush administration’s aspiration for a long-term military presence, aimed both at projecting power in the region from bases in Iraq and at maintaining that Iraqi military dependence on US training, advice and support.
The agreement represents an acute embarrassment for the Bush administration, which had taken the position through most of the summer that the agreement would be consistent with its demand for a "conditions-based" withdrawal. Instead of adjusting its rhetoric to reflect the actual agreement, White House press secretary Dana Perino took the line on Monday that the agreement contained only "aspirational dates" for complete withdrawal and for withdrawal from Iraqi cities and towns.
That was a Bush administration demand that was still in the negotiating text as of August 13, in the form of language referring to "time targets" rather than a firm deadline for withdrawal and which even allowed the two sides to "review" the "conditions that might lead to one side asking the other to extend or reduce the time periods" for withdrawal from cities and complete withdrawal.
But the Bush administration soon dropped those demands, perhaps in the recognition that a Barack Obama administration would withdraw even more rapidly than the date set in the agreement.
Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also supported that White House line by suggesting that the US military would continue to talk with its Iraqi counterparts, and that it is "theoretically" possible for the deadline for complete withdrawal to be extended.
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